St George Illawarra winger Jason Nightingale is banking on the team's short turnaround to breathe new life into their stuttering NRL finals push.
The Dragons' top eight aspirations took a major blow after dropping a controversial match against cellar-dwellars Newcastle last week.
Coach Paul McGregor lashed out at the referees for two tryscoring decisions after the match, including one where Nightingale was ruled to have knocked-on.
Nightingale was adamant the ball went back, but refused to pin the defeat on the officials.
"The refs shouldn't become part of whether you win or lose in any game," Nightingale told reporters on Monday.
"If we played the type of footy we're used to playing or we played the week earlier, refs wouldn't come into it. We wouldn't be talking about this. It wouldn't be a factor in the game."
The defeat means the eighth-placed side are now just one more loss away from being bounced out of the top eight for the first time this season.
The Dragons are currently level with ninth-placed Penrith on 24 points, but sit inside the top eight with a +38 advantage in points differential.
Nightingale admitted it was difficult to avoid watching the closeness of the ladder but urged the team to address their inconsistency issues before contemplating a premiership tilt.
"It's about winning and making sure you put on consistent performances because what's the point in getting to the finals if you're just going to turn up and play terribly," he said.
"There's no point in that, so you need to figure out how to build consistent performances somewhere and it has to happen between now and when the finals happen."
The Dragons take on South Sydney at the SCG on Friday.
"Obviously we're a little bit disappointed and pretty sombre at the moment, especially when you review games like that," Nightingale said.
"But the quicker you move on, the better it is to get back on the horse and create optimism.
"That's the positive about a short turnaround, you don't have a lot of time to dwell on what happened on the weekend."
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